An irregular exploration of the struggle between the power of rational discourse and the scientific method on one hand, and the forces of superstition and dogma on the other.
James Hrynyshyn is a freelance science journalist based in western North Carolina, where he tries to put degrees in marine biology and journalism to good use.
The Demon-Haunted World:
Science as a Candle
in the Dark,
by Carl Sagan
(A
review)
The Doubter's Companion:
by John Ralston Saul (Excerpts)
Skeptic Magazine: www.skeptic.com
Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal: www.csicop.org
A poem by Yehuda Amichai:
The
Place
Where We Are Right
The Meaning of the
Island of Doubt
By doubting we come to inquiry; and through inquiry we perceive truth.
--- Peter Abelard
Undisguised clarity is easily mistaken for arrogance.
-- Richard Dawkins
As for evolution, it happened. Deal with it.
-- Michael Shermer.
September 27, 2007
Category: climate
I would think that after 40 years of research, if you haven't changed your mind at least once on something significant, you're missing the point of science.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 6:11 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: climate
It appears that at least on the subject of melting permafrost, things might not be so bad after all.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 8:37 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: humor
Perhaps it isn't fair to make fun of the social sciences, and I know behavioral ecology has its merits, but can you believe people get paid to study how men and women hook up? From New Scientist we learn that:...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 8:26 AM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 26, 2007
Category: technology
A hybrid pedal-electric bike....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 2:25 PM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 25, 2007
Category: biology
From the "everything you thought you knew about X is wrong" files: an exposé on exercise. Seems there really is no evidence that working out or running hard will help you lose weight. Instead, it all comes down to diet....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:47 AM • 15 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 21, 2007
Category: humor
Wal-Mart scares me on the best of days, but not quite like this. Seems there was a two-year-old who "had a fit" when he came across a Wal-Mart Halloween display that came to life before his innocent little eyes:...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 8:46 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 20, 2007
Category: politics
"There are the Big Science Secularists (who sometimes have a creepily cocksure, pre-postmodern, faith in the possibilities of reason)."
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:44 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: religiosity
We'll never know what role, if any, the mockery of the New Atheists had in the decision taken yesterday by the Toronto Catholic District School Board to let the girls in their charge get the HPV vaccine. But for once,...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 6:34 AM • 4 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 19, 2007
Category: climate
We should be pouring every last spare dime into clean energy research. And don't tell me we don't have enough money.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 12:33 PM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 18, 2007
Category: climate
The best line from the Emmy's on Sunday night was Stephen Colbert, replying to Jon Stewart's suggestion that award ceremonies might bewasteful and bad for the environment:...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 1:18 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: climate
It's another of those infamous positive feedback loops, in which a warming Arctic melts the permafrost, turning a methane sink into a methane (and CO2) source.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 9:39 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 17, 2007
Category: climate
Forget about framing for a second. What about the messengers?
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 2:41 PM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 16, 2007
Category: religiosity
"Born Again Atheist," "Happy Heathen" and other anti-religious T-shirts and bumper stickers are increasingly seen on the streets. But hard data is scarce to come by/
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:11 AM • 8 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 15, 2007
Category: climate
Everyone, even Wired magazine is jumping on the "news" from the European Space Agency that the Northwest Passage is open, right across the Arctic Archipelago. Which is odd because American researchers made the same announcement earlier this summer. We need...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 10:15 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 13, 2007
Category: biology
This is not good. A report from the Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme says toxic pollutants, presumably estrogen mimics and other organochlorines, are skewing the sex ratio in Greenland....
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 1:50 PM • 18 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: religiosity
Who among us believes that atheism will be able to achieve a similar level of recognition and respect in a comparable time frame?
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 8:26 AM • 6 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: climate
"Lomborg's thesis is built on a deep misconception of Earth's system and of economics..."
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:46 AM • 5 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 11, 2007
Category: cetacea
Monday we heard that a group of rogue Makah Indians killed a gray whale without going through the red tape that they're supposed to (or bothering to land it). Tuesday comes a new study that shows the eastern Pacific gray...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:18 PM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 10, 2007
Category: ecology
If sea ice decline follows the minimum trajectory predicted, extirpation in this ecoregion could occur by year 45.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:59 AM • 0 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: climate
Why are so many economists so dismissive of attempts to do something about climate change? Adam Finkel, a regulatory law expert at the University of Pennsylvania, has a wonderful take on that question, in a comment posted at The Intersection,...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 7:56 AM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 7, 2007
Category: technology
Among the axioms of the day is that we live in a time of change, and those changes are taking place at breakneck speed and accelerating. So rapid are the changes that science fiction writer William Gibson has given up...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 8:47 AM • 10 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 6, 2007
Category: technology
The goats were sacrificed in front of the troublesome aircraft Sunday at Nepal's only international airport in Kathmandu in accordance with Hindu traditions,
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 6:49 AM • 2 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
September 4, 2007
Category: misc
Read the Science Creative Quarterly's list of 15 statements that are as close to being true as we can get without invoking dogma. You won't learn much, but I might win an iPod, allowing my wife and me easy access...
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 3:53 PM • 1 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
Category: climate
There's a good reason why trying to swim with dolphins in the wild is illegal in U.S. waters.
Posted by James Hrynyshyn at 12:15 PM • 3 Comments • 0 TrackBacks
